Liquid crystal and the A1: densities of state from the perspective of a Montenegrin village

Abstract

In this paper I argue that the state is best imagined through the metaphor of a liquid crystal – a substance that, at the same time, is both structured and fluid. I combine several well‐established views on the state (as an entity that has structure, but that also needs movement), and demonstrate that the state comes into being not only through vertical (and hence hierarchical) activities, but also through multiple other attempts to build transparency and predictability. A three‐dimensional liquid crystal can be used as a model of the state that not only has structures shaped by multiple participants, but that also is partly an illusion where various centres only appear to group in a meaningful way. In the second half of the paper, I illustrate this liquid crystal metaphor of the state by using an ethnographic snapshot of Njeguši, a small village in Montenegro. Variously (un)successful attempts of villagers and other actors to shape the new road show how the liquid crystal areas are being initiated, sustained and interpreted, thus contributing to the shape the state is brought into being.

Introduction: Auto‐Anthropocenes

“…In a recent SA/AS essay about state power, Klāvs Sedlenieks starts with a quotation from his informant: ‘“If they do not change the plan, I am going to get there and lay myself across the street”, said Nikola’ (2020: 496). With similar echoes, the papers in this Special Section demonstrate that roads, vehicles and other transport ecologies are principal artefacts in shaping the Anthropocene.…”

U Ime Kćerke – Antropologija Roda U Crnoj Gori

“…Crna Gora ovde stoji u oštrom kontrastu sa drugim jugoslovenskim republikama koje su privukle veliku pažnju mnogih istraživačica i istraživača iz društvenih nauka i humanistike tokom poslednjih trideset godina. Postoje značajni izuzeci, posebno kada je reč o etnonacionalnom pripadanju, identitetu i nacionalizmu (Brunnbauer/Grandits 2013, Brković 2009, Vujačić 2013, Zahova 2012; političkoj istoriji i ekonomiji (Bieber 2003, Morrison 2009, Lazić 2018; političkoj antropologiji i antropologiji države (Sedlenieks 2013(Sedlenieks , 2015(Sedlenieks , 2020; religiji (Forbes 2013); srodnosti (Tošić 2017); moralnosti (Boehm 1991). Međutim, svakodnevne prakse roda u ovoj bivšoj jugoslovenskoj republici većim delom ostaju nedovoljno proučavane i nedovoljno teoretizovane.…”

Minority sexualities, kinship and non‐autological freedom in Montenegro

“…However, actually‐existing liberalism in Montenegro is a configuration in which obligation and freedom were not strictly separate, but intricately interwoven (cf. Sedlenieks 2020). The ‘grammar of liberalism’ (Fedirko et al .…”